Apparatus for the preparation and transport of board blanks destined to be pressed



1966 w. HOSTETTLER 3 3 APPARATUS FOR THE PREPARATION AND TRANSPORT OF BOARD BLANKS DESTINED TO BE PRESSED Filed June 14. 1962 INVENTOR WERNER HOSTETTLER ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,226,764 APPARATUS FOR THE PREPARATION AND TRANSPORT OF BOARD BLANKS DES- THNED TO BE PRESSED l Werner Hostettlcr, Zurich, Switzerland, assignor to Fred Fahrni, Zurich, Switzerland Filed June 14, 1962, Ser. No. 202,608 Claims priority, application Switzerland, June 17, 1961,

7,124/ 61 3 Claims. ((11. 18-4) The object of the invention is a method for the preparation and transport of board blanks, destined to be pressed, composed of particles, such as wood shavings or the like, capable of being scattered which flow down from at least one scattering device onto scattering bases which run past beneath two fixed lateral walls limiting the width of the blanks and which are moved in the region of the scattering device by the same driving means as front and rear head walls which limit the length of the blanks and slide between the said lateral walls. The

A further object of the invention is an apparatus for carrying out the method. This apparatus comprises in the usual manner at least one scattering device, two lateral limiting walls parallel to one another arranged beneath it, a chain driving system for the transport of scattering bases and of head walls movably arranged between the lateral walls, and in addition a device for blanks principally concerned here are shavings blanks subsequently destined to be made into wood shaving boards in a multiple layer heated press.

In an already known method of the kind referred to the head wall limiting a blank at the rear is connected to the head wall limiting the following blank at the front to form a rigid unit. The head wall units resting on the edges of the so-called base or scattering plates must be deviated before reaching the preliminary press, owing to the fact that the blanks led along between the head wall units follow one another at invariable intervals.

preliminary press without head walls. The separation of the head walls from the plates allows the blanks to be moved along more rapidly so as to achieve a compensation of the periods of rest in the preliminary press. The purpose of the head walls rigidly connected in pairs in the manner indicated is to prevent the plates from being covered by the material flowing down in a continuous manner in the region between consecutive blanks.

' Now, in order to allow an individual acceleration of the blanks together with the head walls, it has been proposed to connect the two head walls limiting the length of each blank by means of a traction connection (chain or the like) and to couple the front head wall of each pair with the driving means by means of releasable force connection means. Such a system is considerably less rigid. In particular the blanks can now be moved into the preliminary press together with these limiting head Walls. This is especially advantageous, because it gives the possibility of also using at the same time the head walls running through the preliminary press to push the scatled with the blank to the preliminary press or to the loading frame. The new method is characterized accordingto the invention in that the scattering bases, each bearing a blank are, upon leaving the scattering device, each accelerated together with one head wall and are led to a device which receives them temporarily, such as a preliminary press, a press loading frame or the like, where their motion it temporarily arrested, whilst the other head wall is deviated around an horizontal axis, run back and after having been deviated once more is led back to the scattering device, and in that the first named head wall after having been run out of the said "device (preliminary press, loading frame) is deviated and The scattering plates bearing the blanks then move into; the

\ device.

The drawing illustrates two embodiments, given by way of examples, of the apparatus according to the invention.

In these figures:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic side view of the first embodiment,

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view, enlarged with respect to FIG. 1, of a part of the first embodiment,

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic side view of a second embodiment.

The forming track illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 serves to load base plates 1, which are brought up in a manner which is not described, with blanks 2, composed for instance of shavings obtained by grinding or cutting. The formation of the blanks 2, which to begin with are still loose, is efiiected by heaping or scattering shavings provided by two scattering stations l arranged side by side. These are provided in a known manner with distributing and measuring means. The blanks 2 formed in this way are guided during their motion on both sides by rigid lateral walls 5, of which the rear wall can be seen in FIG. 2. Naturally, the scattering plates 1, each loaded with a blank 2, must be supported during their transport.

. arranged between the lateral walls 5. The chain driving 7O taken over by the driving means which drive all the head walls in the region of the scattering device.

systems 6 and 9 serve to transport these head walls. Each system comprises two endless chains running on either side of the track. The chains 6 run round the sprockets 7and 8, while the chains 9 are carried by the sprockets 10 and 11. Each of the chains 6 carries the front head Walls 12 at regular intervals and in addition a number of driving hooks 13, which are destined to engage lateral extensions 14a of the rear head walls. The chain 9 is provided in a similar fashion with drivers 15. As may be seen in the drawing, the chain system 6 does not extend as far as the preliminary press which comprises a table 18, a stamping plate 19 and a piston 20. On the other hand, the chain system 19 extends beyond this preliminary press.

The apparatus operates as follows:

7 In the working phase illustrated in FIG. 1 an empty scattering plate 1 has just been brought up to the beginning of the forming track. Each of the plates 1 is pushed forward until it runs up against the front head wall 12. After this the rear head Wall 14 is brought up by the chains -6, respectively by two drivers 13 secured to this chain. The two head walls now form with the two rigid lateral walls 5 what is in effect a moving scattering frame.

In FIG. 2 one may see how the laterally extending strips 14a are engaged by the drivers 13. As soon as the front edge of the plate 1 which has just been brought up runs under the distributing slots of the scattering devices 4, the distributing members of these devices are set in motion, for instance by electromotor means, so that in the course of the subsequent motion of the scattering plate a blank 2 is formed on it. The said distributing members only operate while a scattering plate is running under the distributing slots. In between times these members are at rest. This control can be effected by means of contacts, advantageously actuated by the head walls themselves. On the other hand photo-electric or other feeler means would also be suitable.

The chains 6 now move the blank 2 at a uniform speed up to the preliminary press 1341). Before this position is reached, the front head wall 12 secured to the chains 6 is swung downwards by the deviation of these chains around the sprockets 8, so that the blank 2 is now only limited on three sides. The function of introducing the plate 1 loaded with the blank 1. into the preliminary press 18-20 is now taken over by the chains 9, respectively by the drivers 15 secured to them. At the moment when the drivers 15 take over from the drivers 13, the chains 9 are running at greater speed than the chains 6; consequently the blank is run at increased speed into the preliminary press and then stopped in the same. The preliminary pressing operation only lasts a few seconds. This time interval corresponds to the time gained by the acceleration of the blanks. After the stamping plate 19 has been raised again the preliminarily compressed blank 3 is moved on by the chains 9 engaging the rear head wall 14 by means of the drivers 15 and brought to a press loading frame in a manner which has not been shown in the drawing. After having been deviated by the sprockets 11 each head Wall 14 is run back and returned to the chain driving system 6 which feeds it again to the forming track.

The operation of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 3 is essentially similar to that of the apparatus according to FIGS. 1 and 2. The principal difference is that the rear head Walls 14 are not led through the preliminary press 18-10. It is for this reason that the pairs of endless chains 21 (with the sprockets 22 and 23) and 24 (with the sprocket 25 and 26) are designed somewhat differently from the chain driving systems 6 and 9. The chains 21 extend up to the immediate proximity of the preliminary press 1844 The front head walls as Well as the drivers 13 are secured to the chains 21 and consequently run at uniform speed. Two tappets 27 are articulated on the chain 24 which runs at a higher speed. These tappets take over the rear head Wall 14, pus-h the latter together with the loaded scattering plate 1 into the preliminary press 1820, draw the head wall 14 back again and deliver it to the lower strands of the chains 21, where it is again taken over by drivers 13. The preliminarily pressed boards can be with-drawn from the preliminary press in any known manner.

What I claim is:

1. Apparatus for the preparation and the transport of blanks composed of particles, such as wood shavings and the like, and destined to be pressed into boards, wherein the apparatus comprises at least one scattering device, two parallel limiting walls laterally arranged beneath the scattering device, fiat supports on which the blanks are prepared, a chain conveyor system for the transport of said fiat supports, movable transversal head walls arranged between the lateral walls, and a device for receiving the blank loaded supports temporarily, a press loading frame characterized by a second chain conveyor system, and driven at a different speed from that of the speed of said first conveyor system, movable transversal rear walls arranged parallel to said head walls, means connected to said second chain conveyor system for taking over and introducing into said device the blank loaded supports together with its rear wall which limits the blank at its rear side with respect to its direction of transport, and means connected to said first chain conveyor for conveying back to the scattering device all transversal head walls.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said second chain conveyor is driven in an intermittent manner.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the device is a preliminary press, and said second chain conveyor extends past said preliminary press, and in that it consists of two endless chains which are located at each side of said preliminary press.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,689,975 9/1954 Long 156369 XR 2,923,030 2/1960 Hirnmelheber et al. l56369 XR 3,070,838 1/1963 Hostettler 18-4 3,173,976 3/1965 Paerels et a1 184 X EARL M. BERGERT, Primary Examiner.

P. R. WYLIE, J. F. MATHEWS, Assistant Examiners. 

1. APPARATUS FOR THE PREPARATION AND THE TRANSPORT OF BLANKS COMPOSED OF PARTICLES, SUCH AS WOOD SHAVINGS AND THE LIKE, AND DESTINED TO BE PRESSED INTO BOARDS, WHEREIN THE APPARATUS COMPRISES AT LEAST ONE SCATTERING DEVICES, TWO PARALLEL LIMITING WALLS LATERALLY ARRANGED BENEATH THE SCATTERING DEVICE, FLAT SUPPORTS ON WHICH THE BLANKS ARE PREPARED, A CHAIN CONVEYOR SYSTEM FOR THE TRANSPORT OF SAID FLAT SUPPORTS, MOVABLE TRANSVERSAL HEAD WALLS ARRANGED BETWEEN THE LATERAL WALLS, AND A DEVICE FOR RECEIVING THE BLANK LOADED SUPPORTS TEMPORARILY, A PRESS LOADING FRAME CHARACTERIZED BY A SECOND CHAIN CONVEYOR SYSTEM, AND DRIVEN AT A DIFFERENT SPEED FROM THAT OF THE SPEED OF SAID FIRST CONVEYOR SYSTEM, MOVABLE TRANSVERSAL REAR WALLS ARRANGED PARALLEL TO SAID HEAD WALLS, MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID SECOND CHAIN CONVEYOR SYSTEM FOR TAKING OVER AND INTRODUCING INTO SAID DEVICE THE BLANK LOADED SUPPORTS TOGETHER WITH ITS REAR WALL WHICH LIMITS THE BLANK AT ITS REAR SIDE WITH RESPECT TO ITS DIRECTION OF TRANSPORT, AND MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID FIRST CHAIN CONVEYOR FOR CONVEYING BACK TO THE SCATTERING DEVICE ALL TRANSVERSAL HEAD WALLS. 